Twitter has grown to become one of the largest, most popular social media channels on the internet. Despite its short-message format, an incredible amount of information is shared via “tweets” every day. For sales reps, there are a lot of potential benefits of tapping into that information pipeline. While no sales rep should jump on every emerging trend, Twitter has established itself as a significant social media presence. It’s a good bet that many of your customers and prospects use twitter on a regular basis. If you want to go where your customers are, that means you need to have a Twitter account. Aside from helping you better connect with customers and potential customers, here are five benefits of Twitter for sales reps.
Typically, the sales cycle moves along so quickly that sales reps really don’t get a chance to demonstrate their individual personalities. If you’re only dealing with prospects who are already in the sales pipeline, that’s not a huge problem. However, individual personality can go a long way toward drawing new prospects into the pipeline. Twitter gives sales reps a way to showcase their personalities for potential customer. This makes it easier to connect with leads who are on the fence, and draw them into the sales funnel.
Twitter is easily searchable using keywords and hashtags. Sales reps can search for product names, related services, business names, or anything else they can think of. Using the search function, they can quickly get a sense of the public attitude toward their products and services. They can also see related concepts and conversations, allowing them to broaden their sales approach to encompass more of their prospects’ interests. Twitter offers an easy way to get a better understanding of your prospect’s lifestyles and interests.
Customers and prospects want to be in control of the discussions with sales reps. They don’t want to be told that they have to call at a certain time, or even that they have to call. They want to pick the time, and the channel. Twitter opens up another channel that they can access any time they want. Using Twitter makes you more accessible, and people like accessibility. The easier you are to get in touch with, the better a prospect will feel about doing business with you. Twitter doesn’t replace email and phone calls, but it does offer another option for those who prefer it.
If something goes wrong with one of your products or services, do you want to wait for business hours to find out? What if a customer has a major problem on a Friday evening? Do you really want to wait 72 hours to start dealing with the problem, and it’s potential fallout? Twitter lets you easily monitor keywords related to your brand, so you can find out immediately if someone is having an issue. When an issue does arise, other Twitter users will be able to see you quickly responding to, and rectifying the situation. If you’re not on Twitter, other users will see the prospect’s issues going unaddressed for hours or even days.
Like most social media channels, Twitter is absolutely free. While it can’t replace other paid tools like CRM and marketing automation, it is a powerful addition with no additional cost. With no more investment than the time it takes to set up an account, you can begin developing stronger relationships with your leads, prospects, and customers. With all of the benefits Twitter offers, at the unbelievably low price of nothing, every sales rep should be out there tweeting.
Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.